Kuzul

A Phillies fan leafing through his Philadelphia Inquirer on May 23 would have seen his team sitting atop the NL East with a 26-16 record—the best in the NL. The Phillies had a fairly comfortable 3.5-game lead on the second-place Atlanta Braves, and that was only after the Tomahawks had amassed a five-game winning streak.

The Phillies were the all-but unanimous favorites to win the division, if not the pennant, for the third year in a row. Nothing had happened in the team’s first 42 games to change that.

That afternoon, the Phillies were to play the Boston Red Sox, who found themselves in a very different situation.

The Red Sox had taken a seemingly endless amount of flack during the offseason for the loss of Jason Bay. Mainstream analysts blamed Boston’s lineup for the team’s early exit from the 2009 playoffs and pulled no punches when the Red Sox did not upgrade their offense (that they had instead exploited a glaring market inefficiency, the undervaluation of defense, made no headlines).

The doubters were given fuel for their fire when the Red Sox struggled out of the gate, dropping nine of their first 13 contests and falling six games behind the Rays in just two weeks.

On May 23 Boston sat in fourth place, behind not just the Rays and Yankees, but also the hapless Blue Jays. The Red Sox were 8.5 games out of first place; the last time they had fallen so far behind so early was 1997.

At 1:35 p.m. Phillies ace Roy Halladay (6-2, 1.64 ERA) was set to take the mound against the Red Sox’s fifth starter Tim Wakefield (0-2, 5.31 ERA). If you had bet on Boston, you would have been called a stupid man.

But you would have come out of it a rich man.

Doc Halladay turned in his worst start of the season, giving up seven runs (six earned) on eight hits in 5.2 innings. He walked two Red Sox, striking out only one. Meanwhile, the volatile Wakefield shut out the Phillies, giving up just five hits in eight innings.

Things have changed drastically since that day.

The Phillies have gone 8-15 since their aforementioned hypothetical fan scanned his local sports page. They didn’t just lose their first-place spot to the streaking Braves; they then were overtaken by the Mets. Philadelphia—the team to beat in the Senior Circuit less than a month ago—is now just a losing streak away from the NL East basement.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have looked like a completely different team since that fateful day. They’ve gone 19-7 over the same time period, nearly matching their previous win total in 18 fewer games.

Just a few weeks after being left for dead, Boston has risen from the ashes and reemerged as one of the best teams in the game. At 40-28 the Red Sox are just two games behind the Rays and Yankees. They would be in first place in any other division.

That game didn’t really change the course of the season—that’s just not how professional baseball works. To put things in perspective, Halladay, the man who had the best excuse to be rattled, threw a perfect game six days later.

But if the Red Sox complete their comeback and the Phillies complete their collapse, it won’t take long to identify the turning point in their seasons.

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We’ve officially had two perfect games this season, and really we’ve had three.

How shocking is that?

Before 2010, Major League Baseball had only seen 18 perfect games – 16 if you don’t count the two in 1880, during an era in which baseball was very different from its post-1901 incarnation.

To have two (three) perfect games in one year defies logic and common sense. But sometimes these things happen.

Take a look.

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We all know the Phillies’ recent struggles—the inconsistent bats and the flat-out lack of offensive production.

Philadelphians have been in a shroud of disbelief over the team’s current struggles, what with the Flyers’ recent success clouding their thoughts, and have ignored the team and brushed off the much-needed panic.

Some call it a slump, some call it midseason woes, but if they Phillies don’t right the ship quickly, we can all call it missing out on the playoffs.

For the Phils, nothing seems scarier in the midst of a slump than interleague play. The team is currently ranked 29th in crossover play, and this year’s struggles have been tragic examples. The Phillies were shelled in the first two games of their recent romp in Boston and barely escaped game three with a win.

Now the Phils have to head to the hallowed grounds of the Bronx to take on the Yankees. Despite the fact that the wounds from last year’s World Series are still healing, the Phillies will have their biggest test in months in NYC.

The series is a three-game set, but when we look at the matchups, we can all agree that game one will be key. Roy Halladay will take the mound for the Phillies, and the Yanks will hope to trump the hype of Halladay with CC Sabathia.

Both of these men have been juggernauts in their careers and hope to set the tone for a possible (and hopeful) World Series matchup in Game One.

Despite last year’s World Series, the Phillies don’t have a huge history against Sabathia. In fact, only three players (Placido Polanco, Raul Ibanez, and Juan Castro) have had more than seven at-bats against Sabathia.

Polanco is a career .326 hitter against the Yankees ace with only one HR and three RBI. Ibanez is the only player close to double-digit RBI, but he only has 11 hits in 40 ABs.

As far as the Doc Halladay v. Yankees matchup, this one has a bit more to it. Halladay was a nightmare for the Yankees when he was in Toronto. The only player on the Yankees lineup that is even arguable against Halladay is A-Rod.

Rodriguez is hitting .299 against Halladay and has seven doubles and 14 RBI. A-Rod is expected to start but could be a game-time decision due to the fact he missed all three games of the Astros series with a bruised hip.

If you look at the Yankees’ big four (Derek Jeter, Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Nick Swisher), they have a staggering 52 K’s and are hitting only .243 against Halladay.

It seems even more exciting for the Phillies when you notice that Halladay is 18-6 with a 2.81 ERA in 35 games against the Yanks and is 8-1 in his last 10 games against the Bronx Bombers.

This is the third meeting between Halladay and Sabathia, as they split their first two meetings.

We all know the pitching is going to be key, but if the Phillies are to have any chance in the series, they will need to improve with their bats. The team is currently last in run production since the end of May, and since they began interleague play this season on May 21 they have only scored a pitiful 53 runs.

As you can see, the pitchers will take the spotlight in game one, but if the Phillies expect to make a run at seeing the Yanks in the postseason, the bats are going to have to do the talking from here on out. Let’s just hope the team is listening.

Side Notes

The Phillies have had luck with the long ball against the Yanks. In last year’s World Series the Phillies had 11 long balls—the Yankees only six. Chase Utley had five HRs in the series.

Utley is currently hitting .256 and was a combined 1-for-9 against the Red Sox.

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